Entertainment

The Bad Education Movie: an interview with Jack Binstead

After three series’ of being badly educated by Mr Wickers [Jack Whitehall] at Abbey Grove, the pupils of Form K are swapping their school ties for sunnies and sandals in their last adventure together – a class trip to Cornwall. With the Bad Education Movie out this Friday, our Entertainments Editor Keri Trigg caught up with Jack Binstead, aka Rem Dogg, to talk filming, fame and the future.

So Jack, what can you tell us about the film?There’s quite a lot of action but I can’t really say much more than that sorry!

What was it like filming in Cornwall?We got to see a lot of amazing views. It took a lot of time to get used to because I’m a born-and-raised city boy. It’s a different lifestyle down there – living on farms and the fact that the nearest Tesco was 30 miles away! It’s been good. I’m actually on my way to Cornwall now because when I was filming I met someone and we’re still together.

You’ve been playing Rem Dogg since the first episode in 2012 – what’s it like playing the same character for so long?I’ve enjoyed it. I get recognised a lot…there’s quite a lot of fame that’s come from it but I really enjoy that. A lot of the time they don’t recognise me as Jack, they recognise me as Rem Dogg and they’ll shout “Rem Dogg!” at me in the street.

Do you have much in common with Rem Dogg?The fashion sense isn’t too far off. All you see is him in a uniform really but you do see us out of uniform for nearly the whole film because it’s a big school trip. I wear a lot of snap backs, and Rem Dogg wore his snapback for pretty much the whole way through the series’ so we have that in common, and I guess that helps people recognise me because with the wheelchair and the snapbacks it’s like, “wow, that’s definitely him.”

What about personality-wise?Possibly some of the sarcasm and humour of being in a chair – not taking it seriously – is definitely something that I have as a quality in my life, and a lot of what Rem Dogg says and the stuff Mitchell [Charlie Wernham] calls Rem Dogg has come from me. A lot of the things I get called in the show I’ve actually been called in real life, so I can say, “how about you say this.” It’s nice really because we knew it would work.

What’s it like working with someone as big as Jack Whitehall?
It’s really good. As the series’ have gone on we became mates. I was under 18 for the first, second and third series, but with the movie I was over 18 and we were staying in hotels for a month so we got to hang out on a more chilled vibe, not just on set. Jack’s a lovely guy, I love his comedy I love his TV work and he’s only going to get bigger from here.

Was this the cast’s last time all working together? There’s no way of knowing really. I thought after Series Three that would be it, and next thing I know we’re doing a movie together so I really have no idea. I’m sure we’ll work together on different programmes and films over the years too. We stay in touch and we do occasionally meet up.

What have you been up to since you finished filming?My YouTubing has taken off. I’ve been YouTubing since last November but it took of about June, so I’ve done a lot of stuff for BBC3 and Channel 4 for that. And Off Their Rockers on ITV – I did the disabled version, which that was quite a big success too, so I’ve been quite busy really.

You tweeted that you had a big audition the other day – can you tell us what that was for?I have to keep that secret! But it’s a very, very big audition – the biggest one I’ve ever done so if I get the job it’s definitely a life-changer. I did my best, but it’s a completely different role than what I’m used to. In a lot of the TV stuff I’ve done I’ve played the bad boy, but this is very much the opposite so it was in some aspects quite a challenge. It could involve me singing, I’ll let you know that, and I’m not a singer! But I felt that I did the best I could and I’m happy with my performance.

So you’re doing quite well compared to a lot of 18-year-olds!
I got a bit lucky, I guess. I started out as an athlete when I was a kid, then got an audition for Bad Education…

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